Second Annual Stock Market Trivia Competition Draws Students from 13 High Schools

Members of the 2006 Sy Syms Stock Market Trivia Competition championship team, North Shore Hebrew Academy, with their faculty advisor.

Apr 5, 2006 — The questions flew fast and furious. Students were given just 10 seconds to prove they knew their stuff. In the end, North Shore Hebrew Academy of Great Neck, NY, knew their stuff better than the rest and captured first place in the second annual Sy Syms School of Business Stock Market Trivia Competition on April 5.

This year’s contest attracted 13 area high schools that competed in groups of two and during three separate sessions, which all took place in Belfer Hall on YU’s Wilf Campus. After the three sessions concluded, the two teams with the most number of points (one point for every correct answer) faced off for the championship. Each of the three sessions consisted of 50 questions, for a total of 150.

The questions drew upon the workings of, and the history of, the Stock Market.

North Shore finished the three sessions with 110 points. Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School of Livingston, NJ, amassed the next-highest point total of 85. The two schools battled for the championship, and when all was said and done: North Shore 20, Kushner 6. Third place went to Hebrew Academy of Nassau County with 67 points.

During a lunch break in the Wilf Campus’s Weissberg Commons, students enjoyed catered meals while special guest speaker Dan Brody, a 1996 YC grad and recent participant on NBC’s ‘The Apprentice,’ offered advice for business (and for life).

“Always be open to other people’s ideas,” he said. “Always be aware that you don’t know everything, that there is always more to learn and more to benefit from.”

Brody credited his years at YU with teaching him this lesson.

“When you’re in a place like Sy Syms School of Business, you meet new people who are like-minded but also have certain experiences and knowledge that you do not have. That is something I certainly benefitted from at Syms and YU,” Brody said.

For the second year in row, Yeshiva University High School for Girls fielded the only all-female team. Most teams were all-male, though some were co-ed.